Mothers Unite: Say NO to GMOs

Stonyfield Guest Blogger Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D. shares some thoughts on the recent USDA decision and why it’s important for moms to unite against GMOs.

Have you ever gone online to search for one topic, only to find yourself clicking on another tempting link, which takes you deep into the web of fascinating information? That’s how I discovered Kathleen Dean Moore.

Moore is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University, an environmental writer, and mother. I was investigating the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainability Education when I stumbled upon one of Moore’s lectures in which she posed several thought-provoking questions, such as: What is our obligation to future generations?

We mothers from all walks of life and points of view would likely agree that our obligation for tomorrow’s children is to err on the side of caution and safety today. For example, Moore describes a scene in which future generations of children question their ancestors’ decisions: “What did you think we would drink when our aquifers became contaminated?”

And that, dear friends, is why we must unite, and say NO to GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The safety of our children’s future water, soil, plants, animals and health depends on our actions today.

With the USDA’s recent green light decision allowing the unrestricted planting of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa, let me clarify a few basic facts about GMOs/GE crops that often slip under the radar.

First and foremost: GE crops, such as “Roundup Ready” soy, sugar beets and alfalfa are all engineered to withstand Monsanto’s toxic herbicide, “Roundup.” The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, which is systemically transported throughout the plant and may eventually find its way into our groundwater. In the soil, glyphosate disrupts the complex microbial ecosystem.

Make no mistake: herbicides (and pesticides) are poisons with unintended and not fully understood consequences.

Some herbicides are “neurotoxic,” or poisonous to the wiring in our brains and nervous systems. Others are “endocrine disruptors,” toxic to our endocrine or hormone systems. Think: increased risk of birth defects and cancer.

Even the 2010 President’s Cancer Panel Report recommends choosing foods that have not been grown with these compounds. So why would the USDA allow planting crops that would increase the use of toxic chemicals? Perhaps those in charge of agriculture policy didn’t read the Cancer Report.

Make no mistake: agricultural practices are tightly linked to the health of present and future generations.

The irony of the latest decision to approve GE alfalfa is that most farmers don’t use herbicides to grow the crop. So why start now if there’s no need?

Dr. Warren Porter, a zoologist at the University of Wisconsin, says the main reason for making GE crops is to be able to sell more pesticides/herbicides. And you can bet these GE foods will have higher concentrations of pesticide residues, explains Porter. “This is what people don’t realize.”

Because weeds and pests naturally develop resistance to the poisons designed to kill them, farmers graduate to using more and stronger chemicals to kill new “superweeds,” further harming our soil, polluting our water and contaminating our food.

Sure enough, researchers at Dow AgroSciences and the University of Missouri have genetically engineered soybean plants to tolerate” 2,4-D,” a suspected endocrine disruptor that can lead to thyroid problems, prostate cancer and reproductive abnormalities. This chemical has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and delays in brain development. Pregnant women and children are most susceptible.

We have yet to find the smoking gun behind the staggering increases in autism, ADHD, and childhood food allergies, but in keeping with our obligation to future generations, it is prudent not to add more toxic chemicals to our environment.

Worse still, GE alfalfa threatens to contaminate non genetically modified and organic alfalfa, a critical ingredient in an organic cow’s diet. So by approving and planting GE alfalfa, those of us who prefer organic meat and dairy may be without that choice.

Mothers, it’s time to unite: Talk to your friends, your farmers, and family. Ignite your social networks. Call the President’s office and let him know we are obligated to safeguard our children’s health. Say NO to GE alfalfa: www.whitehouse.gov/contact

4 Comments

This is a manipulative P.R. article that is meant to look like scientifically accurate news. It’s written by the company that is trying to sell you the product. It’s pesticides, not GMO’s that are posing a health risk. They are just using the word “GMO” because its a buzz word, and the average person understands very little about them. Get this… You can genetically modify a plant so that it is resistant to the PEST so that you don’t have to use PESTICIDES at all. You can modify plants to make their own nitrogen fertilizers (like legumes do) so that you don’t have to poison the ground with industrial fertilizers that do seep into the ground. Here is some advice: Never trust and article that is written by a company that is trying to sell you something (for twice the price while they prey on your fears and misconceptions), don’t trust anything that is prefaced by “Make no mistake” … propaganda 101. Make sure you are keeping these “health food” companies honest and offer them the same skepticism that you’d treat anything else that you are not an expert in (GMOs). Unless you just want to spend the xtra money while they make fools of you.

Dear Katie, thank you for expressing your concerns. As a teacher of “media literacy” I appreciate your healthy skepticism about media messages, and I encourage all of my clients, patients, students and readers to question me.

I promise you that as a mother, a nutritionist, registered dietitian and journalist, I strive to uphold my professional ethics. You have my word that I would never sacrifice my professional reputation for a paycheck. What has driven my work for 30+ years, is a genuine longing to protect public health, the Earth’s natural resources, and our children’s future. When it comes to children’s health, I prefer to err on the side of caution, and if you are a mother too, we likely share those sentiments.

I discovered the benefits of organic food and farming, and became concerned about GMOs, beginning with a two-year Food and Society Policy Fellowship (2004-2006), where I visited farms and had a chance to learn from farmers, soil scientists, neonatologists, zoologists, biologists, and rural sociologists. I started to connect the dots between food, health and agriculture and that’s where I focus my research, writing and speaking today.

I write a blog for Stonyfield, because I am proud to associate my name with companies and cooperatives that support socially and environmentally just agricultural methods and business practices. I am given total freedom to address the concerns I see in our food system as they relate to food, nutrition and public health. I also respect Gary Hirshberg’s philosophy and leadership, and I invite you to listen to an interview I did with him on Food Sleuth Radio here:http://kopn.org/a/fl2.html?http://kopn.org/dc/fs/10-21-10%20Food%20Sleuth.mp3

I also invite you to listen to other interviews I’ve conducted with experts at some of our leading Universities and non-profits about GMOs, herbicides/pesticides, and the loss of public funding for our Land Grant Universities. If you go here: http://www.kopn.org and click on “Food Sleuth,” you will go to the archives. Please listen, in particular to the interviews with Warren Porter at the U. of WI, Tyrone Hayes, at the U. of CA-Berkeley, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., author of “Living Downstream,” and Doug Gurian-Sherman at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and author of the report, “Failure to Yield,” about the broken promises of GMO crops.

In addition, here are two links to concerns voiced by Dr. Don Huber, retired professor from Purdue who has studied glyphosate for 20 years:

My post specifically addressed GMO crops that have been genetically engineered to withstand sprays of the herbicide Roundup.

You are right, herbicides and pesticides ARE the problem, but the newly approved GMO crops are designed to receive sprays with promises of increased yields and profits.

Plants can be genetically modified to synthesize a pesticide — this is the case with Bt corn. Genetic modification puts the toxin in every cell of the plant, rather than applied as needed in the organic agricultural system. Chuck Benbrook, Ph.D. at the Organic Center published a report on this subject, which may be helpful in understanding the complexities of this technology:http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/13Years20091126_FullReport.pdf

It’s important to understand that GMO crops have never been tested for long term safety on humans or the environment. If you’re curious to learn how GMOs were approved, check out the terrific book, “Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds,” by environmental lawyer, Claire Hope Cummings.

As for legumes being able to provide nitrogen to the soil, yes they can, naturally. They don’t need to be genetically engineered to do so.

If you would like any more references or articles, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I may not have the answers, but I can direct you to researchers who do.

Thanks for questioning, writing, and your willingness to dig deeper to learn more. So much is at stake, Katie. We are all in this together.

One final note: while it seems like organic food costs more at the check-out, it’s really a bargain when you consider the health benefits. Sandra Steingraber, in her radio interview with me, explains this best. Please listen at your convenience.

I live in the Williamette Valley in Oregon and truly enjoy the people and their feeling of responsibility to the land. It saddens me to think that this is all greed and politically driven, no one thinks of the longterm health risks involved with the crap that the farm factories produce and with no repercussions to them in the event that their product mutated several children or created a new strain of cancer. The other thing that gets me is if one of these factory farms sets up near an organic farm and there is blowover the organic farm that has worked so hard and proudly to have the title loses it due to some of this crap being on their land, somewhere we have to draw the line teh Gulf of Mexico is a great example of why we need to stop with the commercial fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides there is this huge dead zone where even the coral is dying off.